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Determine Color of a Chessboard Square

Difficulty: Easy

Problem Description

You are given coordinates, a string that represents the coordinates of a square of the chessboard. Return true if the square is white, and false if the square is black.

Key Insights

  • The chessboard is an 8x8 grid where the colors of the squares alternate.
  • The columns are labeled from 'a' to 'h' and the rows from '1' to '8'.
  • A square is black if the sum of the numeric values of the column and row is odd; otherwise, it is white.
  • The column can be converted to a numeric value by subtracting the ASCII value of 'a' from the ASCII value of the column character and adding 1. The row is already a numeric value.

Space and Time Complexity

Time Complexity: O(1)
Space Complexity: O(1)

Solution

To determine the color of a chessboard square based on its coordinates, we can use a simple mathematical approach. We convert the column character to its corresponding numeric value and combine it with the row number. If the sum of these two values is odd, the square is black; if it is even, the square is white. This approach uses basic arithmetic and requires constant time and space.

Code Solutions

def squareIsWhite(coordinates: str) -> bool:
    # Extract column and row from coordinates
    column = ord(coordinates[0]) - ord('a') + 1  # Convert 'a'-'h' to 1-8
    row = int(coordinates[1])  # Convert '1'-'8' to integer
    # Check if the sum of column and row is odd (black) or even (white)
    return (column + row) % 2 == 0
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